VIRTUAL - Stênio Gardel - THE WORDS THAT REMAIN

Brazos Bookstore and Third Place Books (Seattle) will host Stênio Gardel virtually on Thursday, May 25 at 5pm CT.

Stênio Gardel will be in conversation with David Martinez.

To register for the Zoom Webinar, click here.

A potent novel about scars left by poverty, illiteracy, and homophobia, opening in Brazil's rural hinterland and moving to its metropolitan center.

A letter has beckoned to Raimundo since he received it over fifty years ago from his youthful passion, handsome Cícero. But having grown up in an impoverished area of Brazil where the demands of manual labor thwarted his becoming literate, Raimundo has long been unable to read. As young men, he and Cícero fell in love, only to have Raimundo’s father brutally beat his son when he discovered their affair. Even after Raimundo succeeds in making a life for himself in the big city, he continues to be haunted by this secret missive full of longing from the distant past. Now at age seventy-one, he at last acquires a true education and the ability to access the letter. Exploring Brazil’s little-known hinterland as well its urban haunts, this is a sweeping novel of repression, violence, and shame, along with their flip side: survival, endurance, and the ultimate triumph of an unforgettable figure on society’s margins. The Words That Remain explores the universal power of the written word and language, and how they affect all our relationships.

The Words That Remain is translated from Brazilian by Bruna Dantas Lobato.

Stênio Gardel was born in 1980 in the rural northeast of Brazil. The Words That Remain is his first novel. It was nominated for two major Brazilian literary awards: São Paulo Literature Award 2022 for best debut novel and Jabuti Award 2022 for best literary novel. The book will be translated into Italian as well.

David Martinez is a Brazilian American writer who has lived all over the United States, Brazil, and Puerto Rico. He earned his MFA in creative writing from UC Riverside Palm Desert. His memoir, Bones Worth Breaking, is forthcoming from MDC/FSG in 2024.